Steve Lomas opened the salmon season on the River Tay on Monday, and the St Johnstone manager admitted he’s hoping to make a couple of big catches this week in the transfer market.
Former Dundee United defender Jim Paterson could be one of them, and others possible recruits were being checked out in a closed-doors game against Rangers today, when Frazer Wright was also making his comeback from injury.
Lomas reported: ”Jim is just 32 with a wealth of experience. He was left a bit in limbo after Plymouth but Michael O’Neil gave me good reports on his spell in Dublin with Shamrock Rovers.
”He is a good lad and a senior, seasoned pro. We have to assess the budget and where we stand but Jim is versatile and with a squad our size that can be a huge asset, as we see with Alan Maybury.”
Paterson, who was a Derek McInnes target while at Plymouth, was a victim of the south coast club’s financial problems. A proposed move to Greek side Kavala fell through and the left-sided defender/midfielder has been training at McDiarmid for several days, and last week performed well against Celtic in a bounce match.
Lomas also revealed that his relationship with Rangers manager Ally McCoist has survived a touchline spat at the weekend, as well as the much publicised Fran Sandaza saga.
He said: ”I am getting fed-up talking about Fran and Rangers, so everyone else must be as well. There must be other clubs interested in him because he has scored 13 goals in 18 games or whatever. He finds himself in a very good position.
”But as things stand I am delighted we will have Fran through to the end of the season. He probably didn’t get as much service as we would have liked against Rangers but he played the lone striker role very well.
”Ally and I had a beer after the game and made up after our wee lover’s tiff! There’s no problem between us. Like myself he is a passionate man about his football and doing the best for his club. It was something about nothing during the game and we had a laugh about it after the game.”
Lomas admitted he was ”surprised but relieved” that there hadn’t been any transfer window interest in summer Ibrox target Murray Davidson.
He noted ”That is surprising but I will be happy if it stays that way through to the end of the month. Once Murray starts taking his chances and adds goals to his game he will be stirring real interest. If my £1 million valuation of him after the previous Rangers game has scared off clubs than all I can say is ‘good!”’
Meanwhile, Sandaza has not actually had a pre-contract offer from Rangers, according to his agent. Clive Jagger claims no serious contract talks have taken place with any clubs.
”I’m meeting the player and his father today in Spain,” he said. ”He can’t reject something he hasn’t been offered. I’ve had a couple of chats with Ally McCoist and he asked if Fran would be interested in signing.”
He added: ”Too many people have got involved and put rumours about. That’s why we’ll get together in Madrid today to decide our strategy. But there are a number of options.
”A Major League Soccer club expressed interest quite some time ago, and that interest has grown because of his performances.
”There’s also been interest from a couple of Championship clubs and I believe a Premiership club went to watch him on Saturday, but I’m realistic enough to know clubs might have 10 to 20 strikers on a list, and maybe 19 of those will be crossed off.
”But I don’t want to name any of the clubs because I’m not sure those clubs want their interest made public, and I don’t want to jeopardise Fran’s chances of being signed by any of them.”